Windows Vista to support upgrades on the fly

With six separate versions of Windows Vista on the way, Microsoft has a marketing challenge on its hands. How will the company properly inform users as to which versions support which features? One part of the plan is now becoming clear: all four "consumer" versions of the OS will be available to users even after installation. How? They'll all be available for "instant online upgrade" once Windows Vista is installed.

Meet Windows Anytime Upgrade. Matt reported on WAU earlier today on M-Dollar, but I wanted to bring this to the front page because I think the news is bigger than it looks at first glance. The approach is simple: Microsoft is going to pack all four operating systems versions into a single disc package. Once installed, a quick trip to the Control Panel is all you'll need to upgrade from Home Basic all the way to Ultimate, should your heart desire. That, and a credit card.

The puzzle pieces needed to make this happen are actually rather simple to put together. All four versions of the OS are based off of the same core OS, with the Ultimate edition sporting all features. As such, putting all four versions on a single disc is no great feat. You could start with the Ultimate edition and pare down to any other version, for instance. (I'm not saying that this is how it works, but it demonstrates how this is possible.) In this way, the media itself is divorced from the installation. In theory, any user with a valid key could use a consumer Vista disc to install any of the four various versions. And any user could upgrade from Home Basic to Ultimate using that same disc, provided they pay whatever upgrade fee Microsoft requires.

Changing face of upgrading

Aside from the compelling concept of instantaneous upgrades, Windows Anytime Upgrade is notable because of how it relates to Microsoft's developing plans for its consumer products, including but not limited to the Xbox 360.

First, this is the logical extension of Microsoft's Windows Vista "up-sell." With four different consumer offerings it was already more than clear that Microsoft was heading down the path of monetizing OS features beyond the XP divide of "home" and "professional." Whereas we thought that this marketing effort might be focused on the retail/OEM experience, now it simply appears that this strategy will reach all the way into the home.

Approximately 90 percent of Windows OS sales come from OEMs who are distributing the OS with new computers. Anytime Upgrade means that Joe User can decide late one night that Ultimate is what he really wanted in the first place, regardless of what an OEM sold him. In this way, the "point of sale" decision is never really a done deal. Joe can always be tempted to push that bottom and drop a few more clams.

Why might Joe be interested in changing up? Here's a subtle part of Microsoft's ploy: as the company focuses on the digital entertainment sphere over the next several years, it is going to be unveiling products and services that interact with the features of some of these OS versions but not others. Let's take an example from a shipping product. Windows Vista Home Premium will allow you to stream movies and videos to the Xbox 360. Maybe you don't have an Xbox 360, so you choose Home Basic for now. What Microsoft has put into place is an easy for you to move to the Premium or Ultimate version of the OS for any reason, whether it's to get Media Center's spotlight, new Xbox interactivity features, or some other as-of-yet unannounced product or service. You may not have an Xbox 360 right now. You may not have any desire for Media Center functionality. It's no matter. If and when you do, the OS can be upgraded on the fly. And this saves more than just a trip to the store; Anytime Upgrade will upgrade computers in place, component by component. Gone will be the worries of installing one OS on top of another, or upgrading to a OS that isn't a patched as the OS on the target computer. With Anytime Upgrade, Microsoft is keeping one core version of the OS up to date. All it needs to do is turn features off and on.

At the same time, the second interesting aspect of this approach slides in: anti-piracy. While tried and true pirates won't be fazed by Windows Product Activation or the difficulties of obtaining illegal copies of the OS, that has always been the case. Microsoft has been up front about the fact that Windows Product Activation (and Genuine Advantage, for that matter) is primarily aimed at stopping casual piracy. Anytime Upgrade builds on that by giving users a method of obtaining valid licenses from within the OS, making it less attractive (in theory) for Joe User to try and hack his install to get features he didn't pay for. If pricing is right, Microsoft could see a modest revenue stream here. In fact, I wonder if this same service won't be used to sell valid product keys to users who have been sold pirated versions of Windows. That alone could generate some decent skrilla (noun, Money; Cash to be spent freely, not saved.).

Still, as they say, rewards are born of risk. One core OS to rule them all means one target for hacking, and the black-hat hacker community will view this as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The hunt for the magical DLL, the quest for the elusive key generator—these begin anew with the release of Vista.

Anytime Upgrade has made an appearance in the February CTP of Windows Vista, but it is not fully functional. We'll be keeping an eye on its development to see where Microsoft intends to head with this service. In the Orbiting HQ we've talked about the possibility of the company "advertising" upgrades within the OS, at opportune times. For instance, the OS could detect the presence of a portable media player and "inform you" that the OS could do so much more if you had Ultimate edition, for instance. Or perhaps Microsoft could take a page from Apple and show grayed-out features options that become available with that sweet, sweet upgrade to QuickTime Pro.

Ken Fisher / Ken is the founder & Editor-in-Chief of Ars Technica. A veteran of the IT industry and a scholar of antiquity, Ken studies the emergence of intellectual property regimes and their effects on culture and innovation.